Refinishing solid wood garage doors

It’s time for a new garage door. Well new used one. Our current door is the standard disintegrating Masonite monster you see on many homes. Since we are trying to hold onto all home improvement dollars to pave a new driveway a brand new door is not in the budget.

I am addicted to our local habitat for humanity re use it center. I frequent it for discarded boards to add to my wood stash. A couple weeks ago I stumbled across a new treasure there. A solid wood garage door. It’s a single door size and perfect fit for my underwhelmingly sized garage (currently overloaded with my hoarded stash of boards). Only downside was the finish was worn off and the entire door badly in need of refinishing.

Today the temps hit 70 and I got out my sander and the busted course sanding belt off my big sander. I cut the belt down to size needed for my hand sander and went to work. The worst panel in the lot is the bottom panel and I started and finished that panel today. I gave it a good enough sanding to remove the loose gunk and even some spots out, then put three coats of natural toned Cabot deck stain/sealant on the exterior and one on the interior side. This left it with an aged look but will now hold against our lovely varied seasons. This week we went from getting 8” of snow on Monday to 70’s today (Friday). It gave it a nice deep sheen and retained some lovely patina.

In the pictures the glossy/bottom panel is the finished one. I have it leaning against one I have not started on yet. The door is solid wood. No foam core here. It’s remarkably light and I believe it may be fir.

PermaChink makes a sealant to fill in cracks in log homes called “Energy Seal”. It comes in a tube just like caulk and is applied with a caulking gun, comes in different shades and is stainable. You can use it to seal the cracks in the door panels. It will seal it from the moisture and stop the wind and cold air from entering the garage through the cracks. It will cost about $12 for a tube.